February 2004

Dear Praying Friends,

So much seems to have happened since I last mailed you all a letter!

After finishing the face-to-face part of the last 60% of the New Testament with our translation consultant in the lovely Andean city of Huanuco in late November, we all returned to Nueva Luz via Pucallpa. Upon arriving in Kashinawaland, our co-translators Roberto, Waldemar and Tufi and we worked on the questions and suggestions from our translation consultant which had to be resolved before this remaining 60% the New Testament could be approved for publication. The days were long and tiring, and we kept on with our six-day workweek, but we have finished with this check now, with a great Halleluiah!

Next was the check of all the "parallel" passages in the New Testament. There were about 100 passages to check and choose the best way to say the same thing in each identical occurrence, and taking special care not to add something that was in one book but not in another. This also provided more long and tiring days! But we have all survived with no obvious scars, and again gave another great Halleluiah!

When we left Nueva Luz this time, we had one more big task to do, and that is the final "read-through" of the entire New Testament in a nice air-conditioned room reserved for us in the Wycliffe Center at Yarinacocha. We are working with Roberto, Waldemar and Waldemar's oldest son, Abel, who has just completed his first year of college and is just about as sharp as his father. It is always hard for the men to be separated from their families when they have to leave Nueva Luz to work some other place with us, but during the school year their children must stay in school, and the separations are no longer than we can make them. Now, however, is "summer vacation" in Peru, so this is the one time that we have decided to bring in Roberto and Waldemar's wives and younger children with us to Pucallpa-Yarinacocha. Eleven of us in total traveled 8 hours downriver on January 8th to Esperanza for the cargo plane of the 10th to Pucallpa.

You all know the nursery rhyme that starts out: "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe..." Well, that is how it is at our house now. Fortunately we are very fond of both wives and the children and they have all been in Pucallpa several times before, when the men were attending the Swiss Indian Mission's Bible School. Our dear friend Juana, on whose land we have our little house, has also "found room in the inn" for these two families. Yes, it is cozy, but it is only for 6-8 weeks, and we all are really doing fine. "Cope" is a good word to remember!

As soon as our "read-through" is completed, the families will return to Nueva Luz and we will get ready to leave for Bolivia, where we are to start working on March 15 with the Bolivian Bible Society. They will get our manuscripts ready for publication by the Peruvian Bible Society, and have arranged for us to rent a room that will be near their office and have promised us lovely weather and a very joyful reception. We have been working so hard for so long that this sounds especially good to us both. The people in Bolivia have told us that we will probably be there 6-8 weeks to complete the manuscript preparation. We will also get our computer preparation done to begin on our next edition of the Kashinawa New Testament, which will be for those who live in Brazil, a Portuguese speaking country, and thus needs to have a different alphabet. They can program all the alphabet and proper name changes that we know we need and then we will have a nice clean start for the dialectal changes we will have to do as we read it through with the Brazilian and Peruvian teams together.

June 1st we expect to have two or three men and their families arrive in Nueva Luz from Brazil (a 5-6 day trip for them by motorized canoe) to work with us on the adaptations that will be necessary. The older of these men used to live in our former village and we have known him as a Christian for 35 years. Does it sound like we are on a roller coaster? I guess we are but we have long ago learned to take one day at a time and that "the Lord's strength is made perfect in weakness" and "My grace is sufficient for thee!"

After the Brazilian Kashinawa New Testament is off to the publishers, and this is presently programmed to include our going to Brazil for manuscript layout, we plan to begin working on a 40% portion of the Old Testament that has been determined by various organizations in Peru to be the most important to translate for those who cannot complete the entire OT translation. We have already revised Genesis, a big chunk of the 40%, and while we were in Nueva Luz last time, Dick and Tufi began the revision of Exodus. Our mission has given us a six year term and we want to get as much of the Old Testament completed as we can, and have been helping Roberto and Waldemar to become computer literate, so that if there is still more to do at the end of these six years, they will have the choice to continue on themselves. That would be very difficult for them, but not impossible. There is an organization of about 30+ Amazonian Indian groups who had been working together on this "40% project" with a translation consultant helping "Mother Tongue Translators", basically those whose linguists have retired and no longer have anyone else to help them. Unfortunately, this organization is presently lacking in funds and their projects are basically "on hold" for now, but that could change.

REJOICE with us:

• That the revision of the Kashinawa New Testament for Peru will soon be finished and the manuscript preparation gotten underway.
• That the Lord has called us and three very special Kashinawa men to the task of revising the Word of God for them in the language of their homes and hearts. They have given up a great deal to devote themselves to the translation, most of all their freedom to go where they'd like to when they want, something very much a part of their culture, to be part of a six day a week work team for minimal wages.... but for a great deal of joy and an eternal reward.
• That even though we have had lean times, that the Lord is meeting our needs and we know He will continue to do so. I must quote a passage of Scripture that I have recently read and joyfully meditated on, the final verses of Habakkuk: Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my salvation!

HOW YOU CAN PRAY

• For the Lord's daily joy, wisdom, grace, patience and strength to be upon each of us as we work together and travel down many long and tiring trails;
• For the Kashinawas in Peru and Brazil to be continually growing in the knowledge of the Lord and for more and more to come to faith in Christ;
• For the Lord to meet all our spiritual, physical and financial needs to complete the Peruvian NT and move on to the Brazilian edition, and for the publication funds still needed.

We deeply thank you for your prayers for us and your gifts to us either personally or through your church. As I can, I will write personally, but my days just don't have much time left in them for correspondence, for we are pushing on as hard as we can to complete our translation goals. If you are able to help with our publication costs, please consider doing so, and use the clip-off form below. And, thank you very much, in the name of our dear Lord and from the Kashinawas who believe and are yet to believe because they have God's Word in their language. Or if you could help with our personal support, we would also appreciate that very much. Traveling to Bolivia and Brazil in the same year are not exactly in our budget.

May the Lord's overflowing blessings be upon each of you.